Customer Reviews

The Kobayashi Maru

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I was younger I was a big fan of the ST:TOS and ST:TNG series of novels. But if you read these series for any length of time you soon come to realize that most of these books are poorly written crap.

"The Kobayashi Maru," however, is a hidden gem that stands the test of time. I own about 40 Star Trek novels and this is the only one I've read more than once. I recently read it for a third time after many years and it's still as good as I remember. What makes this book so special is that it relies on character rather than plot to keep you entertained. Whereas most Star Trek books assume everybody knows about the characters and concentrate on interesting plot twists, this book goes behind the larger than life heroic aspect of the original crew and examines them as real people with real hopes and dreams and fears.

The book is broken into four flashbacks of how Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov each managed in their own way to beat the Starfleet Academy's Kobayashi Maru combat simulation, the so called "impossible scenario," framed within the present day story of a shuttlecraft problem. What makes these stories so charming is that they each show something special about the four characters, who really come to life in new ways when we see them as cadets, but still ring true as the people we know them as in the "present" as Enterprise crewmembers.

This book is true quality, and well worth buying even for casual fans of Trek.

Julia Ecklar does two things with the Kobayashi Maru simulation that was one of the most interesting sub-plots in "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan." The first is that she goes back and tells the story of how Jim Kirk became the only cadet at Starfleet Academy ever to beat the "no-win scenario." The second is that she also tells the stories of the cadet encounters of Chekov, Sulu and Scotty with that same scenario. The framing story involves a freak shuttlecraft accident with gives the four officers and McCoy nothing to do but tell their stories.

The four stories are quite different. Kirk's story, "The No-Win Scenario," is devoid of dramatic punch since we all know the outcome, but it does establish that the Kobayashi Maru test is less about tactical decisions and more about an individual's character. Obviously young Jim Kirk is going to have all the attributes that would make him "The Captain Kirk." Chekov's chapter, "How You Play the Game," spends little time on the Kobayashi Maru test focusing more on a survival exercise on the Moon base and Pavel's desire to be just like the great James T. Kirk. In "Crane Dance," Sulu tells the story of how he came to make the decisions he did during his taking of the test. The shortest and funniest tale is Scotty's "In Theory," which shows the engineer was not suited for command, even though he exhibited an unprecedented talent for destruction, when he could be bothered to pay attention to all those attacking Klingon war dragons.

These are an interesting set of stories, not particularly insightful but certainly true to the characters. I have been surprised that the idea of the Kobayashi Maru as a standardized Star Trek Rorschach test has not been repeated in the other series. After all, what Star Trek fan would not be interested in finding out what Spock, Worf, Data, Sisko, and everybody else did when confronted with the no-win scenario?

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I received it as a gift ten years ago, and I still reread it from time to time. I enjoy it thoroughly each time. The Kobayashi Maru is a simulator exercise all command students at Starfleet Academy must go through to test how well they respond to losing. Decades after they took the test, several officers of the starship Enterprise leave the ship in a small shuttlecraft on what is supposed to be a routine mission. When the shuttlecraft is disabled, cutting off the craft's communications and other vital functions, they are left with nothing but time, and they end up telling each other about their experiences with the Kobayashi Maru exercise. My favorite of the four stories is that of Scotty, who is in command school at Starfleet Academy to please his mother but feels that he is "meant more for commanding machines than commanding people." My second favorite is the story of Sulu, who in his first year in command school learns painful lessons about life, death, and meaning from his great-grandfather. This story makes me cry every time. I also like the story of Chekov, whose passions, resentments, and blind spots will remind the mature of what it was like to be an adolescent pickling in emotional turmoil. I felt that the story of Kirk was the weakest of the four; Kirk can't accept the concept of losing and will do anything to avoid coming face to face with defeat. For a man who is supposed to be intelligent and skilled, this is an asinine attitude. Life is about losing, and the sooner one comes to terms with that, the sooner one starts to grow. On the whole, however, this book is outstanding.

Julia Ecklar does two things with the Kobayashi Maru simulation that was one of the most interesting sub-plots in "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan." The first is that she goes back and tells the story of how Jim Kirk became the only cadet at Starfleet Academy ever to beat the "no-win scenario." All we learned from the film was that the young Kirk "changed the conditions of the test" and "received a commendation for original thinking." The second is that she also tells the stories of the cadet encounters of Chekov, Sulu and Scotty with that same scenario: a fuel-carrier strikes a mine in the Organian Neutral Zone and the cadet commanding a Starfleet vessel has to decided whether or not to attempt a rescue and risk destruction and a war with the Klingon Empire to rescue the stranded crew. The framing story used by Ecklar is a freak shuttlecraft accident, which gives the four officers and Dr. McCoy nothing to do but to each tell their stories in turn.

The four stories are quite different. Kirk's story, "The No-Win Scenario," is devoid of dramatic punch since we all know the outcome, but it does establish that the Kobayashi Maru test is less about tactical decisions and more about an individual's character. Obviously young Jim Kirk is going to have all the attributes that would make him "The Captain Kirk." Chekov's chapter, "How You Play the Game," spends little time on the Kobayashi Maru test focusing more on a survival exercise on the Moon base and Pavel's desire to be just like the great James T. Kirk. In "Crane Dance," Sulu tells the rather poignant story of how he came to make the decisions he did during his taking of the test. The shortest and funniest tale is Scotty's "In Theory," which shows the engineer was not suited for command, even though he exhibited an unprecedented talent for destruction, when he could be bothered to pay attention to all those attacking Klingon war dragons.

That last story is what justifies James Doohan, who played Commander Montgomery Scott on the original "Star Trek," being the one to read this novel because when he gets to his character's story he gets to really have some fun. It is also nice to hear a familiar voice doing the reading this time around. These are an interesting set of stories, not particularly insightful but certainly true to the characters. I was surprised that the idea of the Kobayashi Maru as a standardized Star Trek Rorschach test was not repeated in the other series. After all, what Star Trek fan would not be interested in finding out what Spock, Picard, Worf, Data, Sisko, Chakotay and everybody else did when confronted with the no-win scenario? I would not be surprised if someone out there in fan fiction you can track down those stories.

James Doohan does a credible reading of this somewhat mediocre book. I gave it "four stars" because of this. Otherwise the story is a "three star tale." The synopsis above does a good job of describing what happens. Scotty is one of the "officers" trapped on the shuttle and Doohan reading the part of his own character comes off very well (as you should expect), not to mention that his "solution" of the KM scenario is rather interesting. This "book" would have been even better if there had been some sort of special effects (like background noise in the shuttle, or engine sounds while telling the KM stories). I recommend it, but there are better stories out there. Run time: 90 minutes.

I really enjoyed this little book - it only took a few hours to read, but they were hours well spent. Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, McCoy and Chekhov find themselves stranded after a freak shuttlecraft accident - they have no way to contact Enterprise to let her know where they are and, as a way of passing the time, they begin to share their stories of how they each handled the infamous Kobayashi Maru test required of all Command School students. Kirk and Scotty's are both hilarious - I laughed my way through their stories. Chekhov's story was more thought-inducing - he had a strange attitude toward how he should solve scenarios and just didn't seem to quite "get it." Sulu's story was actually fairly sad - discussing it with my spouse, I was told "Sulu is pretty dour" to which I replied "well, know we know why."

Interspersed with these stories are the attempts by Scotty and Chekhov to fix the shuttlecraft, while McCoy tends to Sulu and Kirk, both of whom have been injured - Sulu fairly severely.

It seems there are plenty of used copies to be found here at Amazon and, if you have too much money lying about, you can even get a brand-new copy of this 21-year-old text. However you do it, I would recommend getting a copy for yourself -this is a really good book and well above the usual pap to be found when one reads books put out following a television series. Highly recommended!!

this is another one of my faves, gives you more depth of Kirk, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov and why they are the way they are. I especially love Sulu's story, mainly the assignment they have before the Big Test. Kirk's is interesting is you get a look into what drives him and his competitive nature and just how he was able to pull off the ultimate hacking job. Chekov's is interesting in that in a way he is compeating with himself and his view of his future captain. Scotty's is funny and shows the budding of the miracle worker he would become. This is definitly one to check out

Several starfleet officers, enroute by shuttlecraft, find themselves trapped when their ship is crippled by a gravitic mine. With no way to repair their ship, and nothing on hand but time, Captain Kirk, Mr. Scott & Pavel Chekhov begin swapping stories. The fatal mine is not only a relic of an older war, it's also a painful reminder of a notorious test administered to Starfleet cadets (and made famous in "Wrath of Khan") called "Kobayshi Maru". (Cadets who take the test are given simulated command of a starship; in the test itself, they are called on to rescue a stricken cargo ship crippled by a gravitic mine, and marooned in hostile space. In flying to the rescue, cadets find themselves ambushed by Klingon battlecruisers. At the heart of the simulation is an algorithm that automatically stacks the odds towards the cadet's obliteration.) Their chances of survival looking slim, Kirk, Scott & Chekhov begin to wonder if they are experiencing a very real-life version of the "Kobayashi Maru". While the test itself is only a simulation, the bitter failure is not.

The stories our heroes swap inform much about them - Kirk who doesn't like to lose, Chekhov who can't bear that he did lose, and Scotty who thinks that there's an engineering solution for everything. Still, it's a bit shallow - we get three short stories rather than a single deeper (and more satisfying) one. If this were an episode of one of the shows, it would fall into the "ship in a bottle" variety. Meant to be a character-driven story, KM offers little about the characters that we didn't already know (Kirk will break the rules to win; Chekhov is serious; Scotty is very can-do about things.) Still, it's a solid TOS-era story that won't leave you hungry. It's never slow or dull and once you've started, you can't quite put it down.

The external, "frame" part of this story is obviously simply an excuse to set the stage for the four internal stories; as such, it actually wound up being better than expected, if somewhat predictable. The internal stories are the stories of how each of Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov reacted to the "Kobayashi Maru" scenerio in their academy days, ostensibly told by each to the others to pass the time.

The biggest problem here is that the author goes to all that trouble to establish that the characters are telling their own stories, and then tells the stories in third person/omniscient narrator format. Granted, given that no one has ever claimed that any of the above characters are accomplished storytellers, if would have been difficult to keep the stories in their own voices, but it would have been much better if it could have been managed.

As a more minor problem, there are bits and pieces of each story that don't quite ring true, but that's a subjective assessment. They weren't bad, and certainly were worth reading. But none of them were quite what I would have liked to see.

As a whole, this book is worth reading, but not one of the best.

I loved this book. Finding out how most of the core characters handled the "no-win situation" was an essential read for anyone who even remotely considers themselves a Trekkie. Highly recommended.